IDL64 Season 2: Galvanizing Leadership with Roy Hall Jr.
Can you speak up to your leader and your team when you need help? Do your actions match up with your words? Do you, as a leader, celebrate the success and development of your teammates?
Roy is a leader who is doing spectacular things in his community, as so many people who have witnessed what he and The Driven Foundation are doing have said. In this podcast Roy reflects on his experiences, both as a leader working within the foundation, and as an NFL player. He and Tyler discuss everything from the value of assisting others, to what leaders can learn from professional quarterbacks.
As a corporate speaker, Roy focuses on helping professionals to master mental toughness, consistently perform under pressure, and maintain motivation. He has spent over a decade speaking to corporations, at business conferences, professional development seminars, and virtual trainings.
During his 5 years as a professional football player, Roy acquired a strong understanding of what it takes to not only inspire professionals to perform in high-stress situations but also what tools and strategies to provide them with to help neutralize challenges in the workplace that influence disengagement and low motivation.
Visit Roy Hall Jr.’s website and find out more about his speaking events. Connect with him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
Be a leader that galvanizes instead of polarizes (03:56)
Have and practice integrity (20:21)
Celebrate people’s progress (40:26)
Be a leader that galvanizes instead of polarizes
Polarizing leaders do nothing to bring their team forward or help them to feel unified and ready. They fight with their team and create opposing forces.
A leader that galvanizes their team, and unifies them by becoming involved and getting on their team’s level, is the leader that can motivate the team to succeed.
This team can go beyond expectations because they are working together and not against each other.
Your actions – not your title – are what make you a great leader. The leader sets the standard by their actions.
Have and practice integrity
Your actions and your words need to align to create trust.
If you say you will do something and you either do not do it, or you do something different, that will begin to create a distrust of you in the people around you.
Sometimes things happen that do make it impossible for you to stick to what you said you would do, but you still have to take responsibility for not fulfilling that promise.
If something comes up in your life that hinders your performance, it is your responsibility to explain that to your leader, and it will be their job to thank you for the feedback and find a way to pick up the slack.
This also means that there needs to be two-way communication: you need to speak up when you are struggling, to both your team and your family, so that the leader and the team can support you while still moving forward.
Celebrate people’s progress
Leaders celebrate their teammates and employees, even – and most excitedly – when those team members surpass the leaders themselves.
How can leaders assist younger and less experienced people to become the greatest versions of themselves?
A leader becomes incredibly valuable when they can help people to become the best versions of themselves. Those great leaders are never forgotten.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
BOOK | Michael Hyatt – The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business
Visit Roy Hall Jr.’s website and find out more about his speaking events. Connect with him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Join the Impact Driven Leader Community
Check out the Impact Driven Leader Youtube Channel
Connect with Tyler on Instagram and LinkedIn
Email Tyler: tyler@tylerdickerhoof.com
About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
Rate, review and subscribe here on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Stitcher and Spotify.
Here’s the thing, you’re going to be judged by how the people that are following you [are doing].
Roy Hall Jr.
Podcast Transcription
[TYLER DICKERHOOF]
Hey there. Welcome back to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. This is your host, Tyler Dickerhoof. So lad you're here listening today, joining in this special episode with my good friend Roy Hall. Can't wait for you here to this conversation. One, Roy and I got to know, let me give you some background, Roy and I got to know each other, I think it was probably four or five years ago now. I was at an event with a network marketing company my wife and I partner with, Isogenics. Roy was a guest of a friend there. We happened to meet each other in a room, we started chatting a little bit and shortly after that, we just built a friendship and have been friends now for like I said, the better part of four years going on maybe five years, something like that.
I always absolutely enjoy the time I get to spend with Roy, whether it's going out to a dinner, if I'm in Columbus, whether it's speaking at his leadership event, which he drops a nugget. Pay attention, if you live close to Columbus, Ohio, if you live in the state of Ohio, you need to make sure May 17th is on your calendar, blocked off for a special day. He'll share more about that. I'll make sure we share about that in the show notes, but we just jump into a conversation. I wanted him to be on this podcast because as part of the podcast is I want to share not only from authors, but other leaders, but leaders that are doing spectacular things in their world of community.
Roy has done that, as people have told me in the past, what Roy and the Driven Foundation is doing in Columbus, Ohio is just exceptional and I've been able to be on an outside as a supporter, as a cheerleader to see him do it. I'm excited for the work that individuals like he is doing. He shares some life lessons. He shares some lessons of his personal failure that we walk through and talk through an instance with the hall of fame quarterback, Peyton Manning. So sit back. If you don't know much about football, you're still going to enjoy today's episode. You're going to enjoy the conversations that Roy and I have.
I am thankful for people like Roy, Roy, let me give you this perspective too, or a couple minutes into it. I enjoy the time I spend with Roy because not only are we two kindred spirits in a way. He has tremendous amount of passion and zeal to serve. As he talks about give out assists, but he also comes from a much different background than I have. He grew up in a very tough situation. There's a, I'll link it to a podcast episode Roy and I did a couple years ago on a previous podcast that his history looks nothing like mine. We both grew up in Northeast, Ohio. He grew up in a more urban situation. I grew up on a farm and yet the two of us share a lot of perspectives and lessons learned.
I appreciate that perspective from him so much because it helps me appreciate a world. I don't know. I hope I can give that same perspective to him at times as he teases me and with great affection. But this is what you're going to learn today. Not only did we talk about assists, but we're going to jump into a conversation, talking a little bit about professional quarterbacks. So get ready for that. You're going to just jump right into our conversation and like you're sitting at a table just listening to us, because that's what I hope for this episode today. But you're going to learn about the difference between polarizing and being galvanizing. I believe our world is in need of galvanizer, not polarizers because the reality is our galvanizing actions are polarizing for a leader.
[TYLER]
Sit back, get ready. I think you're going to learn a lot and appreciate you being here. As a leader, even though it seems like that's the way to go. It's like, oh, I need to polarize, I need to like stand apart, does nothing to move people forward. So if you think about that from a standpoint of like this idea of a leader, if I am, you'd mentioned, Tom Brady, you mentioned, Tom comes into a locker room and decides to be polarizing. Is he going to get everyone to come together as as a better team? No, it's when he invites them in. It's when he says, "Hey Antonio, oh, you're coming here to the team. Your locker's right next to me. I'm going to put my arm around you and we're going to work together." It's not like, dude, you either fit in or fit out as we've heard before. When LeBron did that to Kevin Love it caused this amount of tension that they had to then quickly figure out. I think that's the difference in that idea of a leader. If they choose to be polarizing, then they're fighting to connect people as opposed to when you choose to invite people, you're already connecting people.
[ROY HALL JR.]
Yes, no, that's an excellent point. I think the biggest thing is the actions can themselves be polarizing. Your actions as a leader is what attracts people to you, but if you go into it trying to assert yourself as a leader, most leaders, specifically on the NFL professional football side, or just in life in general, like you don't have to go in and say, I'm the top dog. I'm the leader. People are going to know, number one, they know who you are based on your title. Your title doesn't make you leader, but your title has you in a leadership position. So now everybody's watching to see how you communicate with the who's in the room and then also the people that no one really knows.
So I'm watching how you interact with everyone and that's what makes you polarizing through your action. Now you do have some people that come in and try to assert themselves and try and some things or disrespect some people or isolate some people. Those are the people that end up losing half their team during a transition versus the guy like a Tom Brady who comes in and says, "I want to galvanize the team and not focus on polarizing, but I'm a galvanize the team by bringing people together and saying, this is the standard, but I'm going to set the standard by how I lead." I was listening to an interview about Matt Stafford ---
[TYLER]
Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on to that interview. Hold on to that interview. You just, to me, you conceptualize it perfectly. Whatever your actions are, are going to be polarizing. If you go with the intention to be polarizing, you're going to create probably more separation and dissension. If your choice is I'm going to be galvanizing, which I love you using that term, if I'm going to come in and galvanize this entire community, that's going to be polarizing in and of itself, but you have already aimed to connect everyone and let that action be polarizing.
[ROY]
Yes, sir. Absolutely.
[TYLER]
Dude, you said some good stuff right there. So you were saying about the interview with Matt Stafford?
[ROY]
No, the same thing happened with Matt Stafford. They were saying, one of his offensive lineman they were asking when was that moment where you knew he was going to be the leader this year of the REMS? They said it was a third or fourth practice in preseason. They said someone missed a call or missed a play or the play didn't come in the right way or they didn't do whatever they were supposed to do and when they got in film room, Sean McVay was talking to the entire team and calling out other people and Matthew Stafford raised his hand and said, no, that's on me. It's my responsibility as the quarterback to make sure the call gets in, everybody's in position, coach that's on me.
Well, that's usually what happens early on in the season but this offensive alignment was saying, Matt Stafford did that the entire season. Anytime anything ever went wrong, he always was the first to take accountability and responsibility for it and to take the pressure off of whoever was the problem and say, I want all the pressure on me. It's one thing to do it in preseason. It's another thing to do it throughout the entire season, because that's who he is now. That action of taking responsibility, even when it's not your fault, it's a powerful thing, man. It eliminates the whole blame piece, it eliminates the complaining piece. It's I am responsible for making sure my team knows what they need to know and has what they need to have to be the leaders that I want them to be. That was the part that was polarizing for the team, but it also galvanized the team because of his actions and that's where you want to be.
[TYLER]
So I want to take from that, you spent a lot of time in locker rooms with amazing coaches, amazing hall of fame players. By your own admission, you grew a lot through the process as a person. I know you've done that. What you just talked about there with Matthew Stafford, both from what you've seen and what you've experienced yourself, how much courage does that take?
[ROY]
You know what, I don't know how much of it is courage as much as it is mental toughness, because ---
[TYLER]
Is that courage.
[ROY]
You have to have a certain level of layers of callous, I guess skin, we call it thick skin, having thick skin.
[TYLER]
Resilience
[ROY]
You have to have the resilience. So in order to take responsibility for things that may not be your fault takes an uncommon level of toughness and will, but it also takes, that's a leader in itself. The only other person, not the only other person, the person that set the tone for taking responsibility for things that they didn't do, taking full responsibility, even if it cost in their life was Jesus Himself. That's the tone. I am strong enough. I'm powerful enough. I'm courageous enough. I want the most out of my people. So I'm willing to take responsibility for things that I didn't even do so that they can go to the next level. So as a leader in a locker room or outside the locker room, Tyler it's, even though it's not my fault, I'm taking responsibility because it empowers me to number one, grow from your mistake, but I can also empower you to grow from your mistake.
So now I can become a better leader because I didn't give you what you needed or I didn't do what I was supposed to do to make sure that you can go to where you were supposed to go. It's a certain level of sacrifice that comes with that. Manning had it. Tony Dungy had it. Jim Tresle had it. Troy Smith had it. I'm taking responsibility for the loss and I really don't want responsibility for the win. We get responsibility for the win, but I'm taking responsibility for the loss. That's a totally, that's the level where you have to get to as a leader, if you want. Here's the thing, you are going to be judged by how the people that are following you go. So Bill Belichick has a coaching treat, every year, Nick Saban has a coaching treat every year. They get like wiped out because they're coaches, "Hey man, well, you want to hire your coaches." That's what you want. You want people leaving. You want people to come poach your people. Why? Because that means I'm doing my job as a leader.
[TYLER]
Man, first off I missed you. I love that. I mean, I'm getting chills and I'm getting chills because this is not something new and, it's just this, man, I wish you were sitting here in town and we're spending time. As we're eight minutes into this hit record and we'll edit this somehow. I'm so thankful for you in my life, for that experience, being able to just hop on a recording real quick and me reach out and say, "Hey, dude, let's have a conversation" and know that it's going to be moving. It's going to be moving for me, but it's going to be moving for every single person that listens to it. I can't thank you enough for being that type of friend in my life that I know if, as much as we know each other, as much as we've spent time in this and that together.
I know if I were in a dark place and I called said, Roy, "I need you right now," that I know this and just know it, that you would do whatever to be there for me. I also know, you mentioned just a minute ago, four people, pretty upstanding people. One of them I've gotten to know the other one, I've studied a lot. The other two quarterbacks know a lot about, I think they were probably that example at different points in your life, as well as other people. This is where I want to transition into that, saying all that stuff to appreciate you in an instance where Peyton or coach Dungy or coach Tresle or Troy, they're sitting there in a film room. They're in an instance. They took ownership for something that you knew, ooh, I let them down. one, how did that make you feel and two, what did you do next?
[ROY]
Okay, that's good because letting people down is, I got a good one for you on this one. First of all, thank you for the virtual hugs and kisses. XO, XO, XO. You like basically just proposed to me. If I was like, if you were getting, like, I feel like you have a ring, I feel like you wanted to tell me, you love me and you just proposed to me. So, no, I appreciate that, man. No, for real man, that's real, that's connection, man. It's a spirit to spirit, love and appreciation for each other. Because if I could articulate how I feel about you as well, man, it's the exact same where you don't have to be right next to someone else. You don't have to live in the same city. You don't have to talk to them every day, but just knowing from a spirit to spirits connection that we're kindred man.
We are here for each other. Like I genuinely care for you. I root for you. I want, I will applaud your victories more than I than I would myself. That's one of those things that leaders have to have and movement is key. When you're moving in the same direction, as long as you look to your right or to your left and you can see your brother moving with it's a good situation, man. So no, I really appreciate the opportunity to come on your platform and your stage just to be able to share the energy that you're putting out with your emails and the podcasts and on social media and the consistency of which you're doing it.
So it's likewise, on the heart to heart connection brothers, but to answer your question, my rookie year with the Indianapolis Codes, I had a collision with special teams running down on kickoff with a guy named Cedric Killings. Yes, his name was Cedric Killings. He was a monster 6'6, 280 pounds or whatever it may be for the Houston Texans. Back then they still had the wedges on kickoff return. This was actually the year after this season of the 2007, 2008 season. They outlawed the wedge. Well, we had a huge collision stepping ---
[TYLER]
Could you explain for somebody listening what the wedge is? Just if someone's listening, they don't know what the wedge is, could you explain that?
[ROY]
So if you're running down on kickoff, basically you see a lot of collisions when you kick the ball off in the game. So the super bowl, you see the flash and lights go off, everybody's running down. The wedge used to be the four, three or four largest guys on the opposing team where they would come together, shoulder to shoulder, almost like a bulldozer and their kickoff returner would catch the ball behind them and run behind the four biggest men in the field and try and run down the field and get as far as you can possibly get on a kickoff return. So if you got the smallest guy at a 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 7, the speedy guy running behind some guys that are 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 4, 300 plus pounds, it's going to be hard to break through what they call the wedge, which are those four guys, shoulder to shoulder, trying to plow the way up the field.
As a wedge would hold open a door like a little wedge, they open the door for them to run through. Well, my job as a kickoff, on kickoff at the time was to go down, to blow up the wedge. So literally your job is not to make the tackle. Your job is just to run into the other guys on the team, which makes no sense. You got me running full speed at a six, six, 280 pound guy. I'm 6, 3, 2 35 running the four, three as fast as I possibly can on national TV. So you can't slow down. You can't move out the way because they'll be able to see it on film and they'll see it on TV. If you move out the way you open up the door for that returner to get through. So you just got to crash into a guy. That's your job, that's your responsibility.
So I did it and did it well. Well, unfortunately on this particular collision was week three down in Houston. Cedric ended up lowering his head a little bit or however we collided and he went down, he broke his neck. I went down shoulder contusion or separated shoulder, partially cracked rib or something. I couldn't breathe. That was the end of that season that year for me. Now I was playing wide receiver on the Indianapolis Codes, which means if Marvin Harrison never went down, if Reggie Wayne went down, if Anthony Gonzalez had went down, I would've been right there in the mix to be the backup. And Cedric ended up recovering. Let's just get that out there. He never played again. His career was over that day, but he can walk, everything, he's good now. But and I think he coaches now, but that year came to a close for me.
Well, the following season, Todd went up to Peyton Manning in the locker room. I'm like, yo P, man, I think I know him that way, I call him P. "Yo P like, hey, you know I got hurt last year." So forth and so on. Just started talking, "Hey,, I'm ready though. Put in the time on film work, I've been watching, I'm healthy. I'm ready to go. I got the offense under my belt. Now I understand that more. I used the off season to get my mind right, get my mental part of the game up." He was like, "Great, Roy, it's awesome. You can help us 6, 3, 240. You're doing some great things. You've showed some flashes last year. We're looking forward to having you." Well, that same season, the 08/09 season, I get hurt again, have a situation where I have some blood clots in my leg from a surgery, from a minor scope or whatever and ended up missing 12 or 13 weeks.
I came back for the playoffs. Didn't really help at all. That was it. So guess what, 2009 season rolls around and I see Peyton in the locker room again, beginning the training again. I'm like, "Yo P, man, I'm ready now, bro. I'm healthy. My knee is good. My shoulder is good. I'm solid. I'm ready to go." Gave him the same spiel again. He turned, just looked away, then he turned back to me. He was like, "Roy, you said the exact same thing last year," and he just walked away like, yo first of all, I don't care if you are Peyton Manning, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, bro. You are not about to be disrespecting me, just walking away from me saying some stuff.
You feel me like you just, I know you Peyton Manning. You are the guy, but you just can't disrespect me like that. So I went through that emotion. You get the initial response, accountability, like you don't want to be called to the carpet on because he's true I did say that. Here's what I learned. Words can be tricky, but actions attract trust. Actions attract trust. So my words were, I'm here for you. I'm doing this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to be available. You can depend on me. That's what my words communicated. Those words Peyton took in 2008 and he trusted those. When he needed me to show up in 2008 in the playoffs, when Marvin Harrison had got hurt and some other guys had got hurt, I wasn't available. I didn't contribute to that mission that year.
In his mind he was counting on that even if it was counting on it for 2%. If that 2% could have helped us beat the charges in the playoffs that year, he would've taken it. But since I wasn't available, my actions didn't align with my words. So now he can't trust me. So me giving him information and saying the same thing, like I'm ready to go, I'm back again, he's like, okay. So he wasn't mad. He was disappointed that he couldn't depend on what I was saying, so he had to basically push away the words that I was trying to get. He couldn't receive them because my actions had basically dissolved his trust. Even though it wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault that I got hurt, but that doesn't matter because as a leader, you're counting on your people to be available.
So I found out quickly that your actions attract trust. So to answer your question in that moment, when people take responsibility for things that, and that was Peyton taking responsibility, like, all right, it's on me for trusting you to do and I can't do that. So now I'm going to pivot and go in a different direction. So the only thing that I could do is sit back off and say, all right, just make sure you stay healthy, stay on board. Guess what my knee gave out on me again, had another knee surgery and missed that whole season. I never played for the Codes again. I went on injured reserve and that was that.
Now I imagine if Peyton had took those words to me saying, I'm ready to go, that was the same year that Marvin I think was borderline retiring, he would've been dependent on me again and I would've let him down for the second time. Those are things that we have to be careful of as individuals and as leaders is saying, what you're going to do and professing how great you're going to be and what you're going to do in 2022 and how this quarter is going to, Q3 is going to be awesome and we're going to do this and then nothing happens. Everybody that heard you say that have now completely just lost trust or a level of trust for you in that room.
[TYLER]
If you taking that story and looking back and putting yourself again, as you mentioned that in Peyton's shoes and thinking, okay, as Roy and like you said, he called you out on that, but he acknowledged more of what happened instead of really calling you out. If there's somebody listening as a leader and they're in that situation or they're responsible to lead others, and life happens to them, life happened to you, what opportunity is there to act differently? Because here's what, this is what I gather. I know this isn't the case, but it's like, did I say all those words and then I go and I have this blood clot, I have this knee issue. I checked out because I was framing in on, oh, this is what I'm going to do. I got to get me right as opposed to all right, that's part of it, but what can I do to step in and actually be a contributor to the team, even though I can't contribute in the way that I thought I was going to. Does that make sense?
[ROY]
Yes. There's two different approaches. There's the initial, how do I react when somebody holds me accountable to my words and my actions and a lot of people can't just step up and say, it's my, again, we're talking about taking responsibility. If someone that is depending on you to do a job has said that, even if it's 90% of what they expected, "Hey, this is where I need you to grow or need you to be better," and the first thing out of your mouth is an excuse or a reason or, "Hey, look, man, why are you coming at me that way talking about I wasn't available?" That's what I said last year. I got hurt. What do you want me to do? I got I got hurt or it could be, I got sick or somebody passed in my family.
So we will utilize these outside factors as a reason or excuse or a crutch as to why we're not performing. That may be true, but that doesn't change your job responsibility at wherever you are. Now, if you feel like those things are hindering your ability to contribute and do your job, it's your responsibility to go to the person that's leading you and say, "Hey, this is going on in my life. It's going to hinder my performance," and now it's an opportunity for the leader to say, thank you for coming to me. We got people that can help pick up the slack. But if you don't express the things that are going on and you keep them to yourself, that's why I'm big on making sure you're like, people want to separate personal and professional. You can't separate the two. You just can't do it.
So the people in your personal life should know how stressful your professional life is so that they can understand when you're moody, when you're going through it, when you're not being a great dad or great mom, or you just don't want to talk when you get home. Or your kids can even understand, hey, dad had a bad day. Just give me 30 minutes to decompress. On the flip side, if you trust the people that are at your place of employment or whatever it may be, you should be able to go to them and say, "Hey, my wife is sick or my daughter has some challenges. It's going to prohibit me from doing the things that I want to do the way that I want to do them or I'm capable. Can I have a week off or I'm going to take some time back.
I think those conversations need to happen. But when you can't do your job to a high level, the way that you want to, you can find a way to fit in. Sometimes that's just letting people know that you're going through something. Most people want to keep everything to themselves and it ends up hurting the team. If I don't have information from you as a leader, how am I going to help you? So I'm trying to figure out why you're not producing the way that you were producing in your first six months with the company, or first three years with the company and really you didn't let me know that maybe you lost a child. Or your wife miscarried. Or your mom passed away. Or whatever it may be like, I don't know.
So, because I don't know that as a friend, as a leader, as a coworker, I can't help you and so now you're making the company suffer, and now I'm going to penalize you without having all the information. So with Peyton, he didn't care about my knee injury. What he was saying was you told me that you were going to be here. You said that. Where I made a mistake was when I got hurt, to your point, Tyler, I didn't stay around the team as much as I probably should have, because they told me I didn't have to be around since I was hurt so much. They was like, "Hey man, you going to be out for 12 weeks. You don't even have to really be around the facility, come in, rehab, get your."
But I could have continued to go to the meetings. I could have continued to be at practice and stand around, even if it was on crutches but the embarrassment, me not being able to do what I wanted to do, me seeing other people in my position start to thrive and to earn that trust with the team was hard for me at 23 years old. I didn't want to do it. So I'm like, if I just stay away and come back brand new, it'll be better for me and my mental health, but really being away from the team hurt me even more because I didn't feel like I was a part of it even though I did come back that season. So I think when you're down and you can't perform, or something's going on where you're not contributing at the level that maybe you could, for whatever reason, you can always find other ways to help out the team one way or another even if it's asking while I'm away, is there something that I can do to help?
[TYLER]
Sure. I think that's, at the same point, this is 42 year old Tyler that's gone through some of those ups and downs, that is sitting there saying that one, what you just acknowledged, hey, had you come back in the building, had you been in film work every day, had you been recognizing, contributing, say, hey, I can't be out here running. I can't be out here catching passes, but you know what I can do, I can spend that time watching other film to maybe see things that Anthony's not seeing, to maybe help Marvin like, to just be a contributor and just say, hey Peyton, is there something I can do from a scout team? Or from whatever point of view that is going to help you? I can't come out and run. I can't come out and catch, but I still have what's between my ears that is not, I'm not dealing with concussions. I'm not dealing with those factors.
I think that's is a great learning lesson, but it's also something that I know many professional athletes and many veterans deal with. At the same point, I would contend that every person deals with it at some point. My skillset, my talent, my ability is in this one way. That's what people value me for and if that's taken away now, all of a sudden I have an identity crisis, I don't know my purpose, I don't know all of these things. You essentially had that at 23, albeit not in a capacity to be able to comprehend that, as you said, and that's part of maturing. We all deal with that. I've dealt with that.
I think that is an opportunity as a position that I know you're doing so much in teaching leadership and helping people younger in age, learn leadership skills to say, hey, the moment you only see value in a person because of a certain talent or skill that they have today doesn't mean that person isn't valuable in other ways that they can't even say. But as leader, a great thing that you can do is say, "Hey, Roy, I know your knees busted up right now, but what would help me is if you came in and you just, tell me things that you're seeing, that maybe I'm not seeing."
As a leader, if Peyton's like, "Hey I want to be here, it's like, oh dude, your knees busted up. I know you're not going to be able to help, I still need you. You're going to be back this season. We don't know. I need you to stay engaged, because I need you to be here, be a part of the team. I know you got other stuff going on. Make sure you take care of that first. But I know there's a place for you here." I think that's our, again, responsibility in society to teach that to people, but also to reach out to people and say, Hey life isn't what you thought it was going to be. You have tremendous value. This is what I see in you. Man, I'd love if you're able to contribute this.
[ROY]
Yes. You're a spot on this. So that situation is twofold. You have the leader coming down and saying, hey, we still need you. You still have value even though you can't do what you need to do or want to do or based on that circumstance that you're dealing with. On the other end, you have the person that's going through something challenging can say, I may not be able to contribute at the level that I may want to for whatever reason, but I do still have that. I can still add value to the team by doing something in a lesser role. Here's the thing, if I had of done that, then there would've been no reason for me to go up to Peyton a second time before the next off season and say, hey, by the way, this is what I've been doing by myself to help the team.
He would've already seen me working by myself, but I would've been with him. I would've been with the team. So I would've had no reason to have to come up to him and remind him of who I was and what I've been doing because I that's what I was trying to do. I was trying to add value and convince him that I'm still here. Like, hey, I know you guys haven't seen me for a little bit, but I'm still here. Here's my proof. Here's my evidence. He's saying, well, that's nice that you're telling me this but you told me that before. I've seen the same proof and the same evidence and it didn't help us at all. As a matter of fact, you did the exact same thing.
So I think those are the two pieces where if you stick around now all of a sudden people still, they don't forget about you. Here's the thing, it's a different perspective. To your point, you get a different perspective watching than you do actually doing. A lot of the backup quarterbacks in the NFL, they watch a lot, so when they get inside the games, they're not as flustered or rattled, even though they don't have game reps. They can get in and play because they've seen so much that they can understand it when it's happening.
[TYLER]
The quarterbacks that make sure that they study and study at game rep pace. The ones that just like, ah, it's my job just to hold a clipboard here. I'm just here in case that guy gets hurt. Those are the ones that come in and they're shell shocked. That's essentially what I think you described, is Peyton was calling, was like, dude, you haven't been here, you come in the playoffs, I saw in the playoffs, you were probably like, oh, alright, I got to try to do too much or overpower, whatever it may be as opposed to, hey, just do you, man. Just do you. If you do, you, everything's going to be fine.
[ROY]
Yes. I think that that's key and you shouldn't have to go remind people of who you are based on what you're saying.
[TYLER]
No, it comes back to what you said.
[ROY]
Actions attract trust. I don't trust you based on what you're telling me. I trust you based on what you're doing.
[TYLER]
Which is what it's telling me, is your actions are saying one thing, and then your words are saying something different. If those two aren't aligned, you're not going to build any trust with anyone. You're not going to have any influence. Your influence is going to be very short-lived if you have any. It's going to be based upon your charisma, it's going to be based upon your smile, it's going to be based upon how you make people feel in that very instant. But once that goes past man, then you're in trouble.
[ROY]
That's the difference we talked about in the beginning between polarizing galvanizing. Your actions will bring people together. Your words will be polarizing but your words will, your actions will bring people together.
[TYLER]
So let's, I alluded to it a minute ago and it's really why one, I appreciate tremendously about you, your effort, your continued effort into supporting a community that has really probably not gotten a lot of support. That's in greater Columbus. A lot of either, whether it's at-risk families and youth and adults, and just saying, hey, I want to be a part of the solution. I'd recognize that from you. I recognize that when we first met, when we've done things together, that that's so much of your heart and your own past your own life. Tell me, one of the things that I love what you're doing, we've talked about this is the youth curriculum, the youth leadership programs that you're doing for high school and middle school kids. I love what you're doing. I want you to talk more about that because I want other leaders that are listening to this to understand the importance of it in our communities and society and how that's the solution as opposed to maybe something else.
[ROY]
Sure. I appreciate the opportunity to share on it. So we developed some leadership.
[TYLER]
So when you say "we" ---
[ROY]
Just, me and the people that helped me on the team.
[TYLER]
The Driven Foundation?
[ROY]
Yes.
[ROY]
So through Driven Foundation. So we developed some leadership curriculum, but to be honest, the curriculum started out for, I mean, it's really, I teach the same thing to adults and executives that I teach to kids. The language changes a little bit, but the principles remain the same. So I can talk to 50 execs and give them here's these principles, here's these steps, this is how you can help your team, et cetera, etcetera, et cetera, exactly what we're doing right now in this podcast but then also take the same notes and same stuff and present it to a high school kid or present it to high school students or middle school students. So they understand the principles because they still remain the same. They're going through the same types of things, just in different ways.
That's where we make the mistake of thinking that young people don't get it. Young people are exposed to more than we have ever. They can do more with their phones, more with their laptops, more on the internet than any adult can that's not in like the tech space. They understand things, they receive things, they digest things and so it's a problem when professionals and leaders don't make it a priority to take an hour a week out of your 168 hours that you got, take an hour, a week and volunteer in your local community, go into your kids' schools, go to your community school. I would like to volunteer an hour my time once a week to teach leadership from a high level down to 10 or 12 of your students. Is that something that you'd be interested in? And imagine how much we would be able to invade the hearts and minds of young people to steer them away from the drugs, the alcohol the thought that they're not valuable and that they can't, they can't add value to anything.
That's where suicidal thoughts come from. All these things could start to get diffused by having men and women come down and say, "Hey, I want to offer my expertise to you." One of the reasons why a lot of the kids that we work with in the inner city only have dreams of going to the NBA, NFL, being rappers or whatever it may be, or entertainers is mostly because that's all they see on television. It's polarizing. It's great to see LeBron James dunkle on somebody. It's awesome to see ode Beckham Jr. catch a touchdown, passing the super bowl. That's what I can see on television. But when was the last time I had someone who's a business owner, an entrepreneur, someone who is over 50 employees or over 500 employees come to my school and work with me on a week to week basis or every other week basis.
There's no way for me to dream because I can't see it. In order to galvanize the group you bring the normal people and you say, "Hey man, these are some options for you, but more than just an employment standpoint and what are you going to do for a living, this is how you can be a difference maker inside of your school. This is how you can get a leg up on the competition by learning how to navigate through this decision-making process." That's what we've been able to implement in multiple middle and high schools around the area. So while I'm working on the professional side with these people that are making tons of money, I can take that information and water it down just a little bit so that these young people can digest it. Those people will, eventually those young people will eventually become the leaders that I end up working with when they get a little bit older. Or they might be end up teaching me, I don't know. I'll probably end up working for them, but that's something that you want to do where the leader can raise up other leaders and then I can then turn, help them raise up more and more leaders.
[TYLER]
So how many schools are you working with right now?
[ROY]
Right now, we're in about 15, just in the Columbus area. It's been awesome. We're growing, we're growing big time. Last year, we're in about four or five schools. We're in about 15 now. I can see that doubling going into next year.
[TYLER]
What's been the greatest driver for you?
[ROY]
That's a very, very good question, which is why you have your own podcast.
[TYLER]
You know me long enough to know that I'm not going to just give you softballs dude.
[ROY]
What pushes you? So probably about two months ago, Stephan Curry broke the all time record for three pointers made in a career and he did it maybe six or seven seasons faster than Ray Allen who had the record before him. They're saying his record can never be broken, it just won't be. And they put all these numbers up and they're cheering for Stephen Curry and it was all about Steph. Then I was on Instagram one day and I saw, I don't remember who posted, one of the sports stations, I don't know if it's Sports Illustrated or Sports Center, but they started laying out the guys that assisted on all his three pointers. Draymond Green was number one with like 450 assists, giving it up to Stephen Curry. Then Kevin Durant, I think was second with like 250. Andre Iguala was third clay Thompson was fourth.
It was like four or five guys that had assisted on, say 1500 or whatever it was of his 20 something hundred, three pointers that he had made. Kevin Durant had tweeted out "send me my Rolex" because Stephen Curry gave Rolex to all his teammates as soon as he broke that record and he is like, well, send me mind because I know I helped. But the statistic that stood out the most to me wasn't the number that Stephen Curry had. It was the fact that Draymond Green had been the number one on the assist chart. I started to think from a leadership standpoint, what that means, how many people specialize and want to master the art of assisting on someone else's success.
Like I am more than capable enough of shooting a three pointer. I can make the shot. I can shoot the shot. I am good at the shot. Matter of fact, before I got here, I was the best person on my team but now I'm on a team with somebody who can shoot better than me. What is it like to be able to say, I'm going to give it to you because you have a better chance of making it than I do and when you have this massive success, it's going to make all of us better? So when I'm helping with young people, I'm the guy that's like, Hey, I have the ball in my court. I can do whatever I want to, but I want to assist you in becoming great. I see something in you that you may not even see in yourself, so I'm going to keep giving it to you until you get the confidence to make this shot, to do what you want to do without my help. Where you want to shoot it.
I want to keep helping you. I want to keep helping you. Every time you see me, you're going to want me to come around because you're like, that guy always wants to help me. He wants to strengthen me. He wants to lead me. He wants to guide me. He wants to assist in what I'm doing. That characteristic right there is one that's missing for most all leaders. Now they'll tell you, oh, I want to see you do well but as soon as you get to a position where you could take their spot, they back off on helping you because they feel threatened. But a real leader never feels threatened by somebody that he is leading. As a matter of fact, I want you to come from my position. If you can do my job better than me, you should have my job.
I'm going to help you get there because you're not a threat to me because if I add that much value to you guess what's going to happen, even if you take my spots, you're not going to want to let me go. I'm too valuable to you too valuable. So if I'm helping high school people, if I'm helping middle school students, if I'm helping executives, my job is to add value to them because I'm actually more value than they are to their own team. If I'm adding value to them and they're taking their team to another level. What does it mean to me if all the students that come through our program end up becoming business owners and entrepreneurs, and they're building the world 20 years from now? It's everything. Guess what? They're going to remember who helped. You never forget who helped you, ever.
I don't know when I'm going to need their help, but if I can help them, I know if they can depend on me, I can depend on them later. I'm not doing it for insurance, but it's awesome to be the person that's assisting. It's awesome to be the person that's given and helping, to distribute the ball to somebody that's better than you. Or could be better than you. And they will get to shine but they're not going to remember where that ball came. They're not going to forget where that ball came from.
[TYLER]
A lesson John Wooden taught, after you make a shot look to the guy who passed it to you. He's like, well, what if he's not looking ? He's like, oh, he'll be looking. There's something I wrote yesterday. I think this idea has come from other people that have pressed upon me, but it's something, what you just said, life is not about what you achieve. It is about what you can help others accomplish. That's what you just said. It's what you're about. You mentioned earlier, tattoo on my chest, I don't have like the guns that you have to be able to have all that artwork and I'd have to do a lot more curls. I spend too much time doing legs. I spend too much time doing legs.
[ROY]
You did that. If you did, or put it on your leg, if you did it, you'd be polarizing.
[TYLER]
I'd choose to be galvanizing. Come on, come on, galvanize this, just like a picture of piece of galvanized pipe and then that's good. Just a reminder, dude. I love you. People listening in say that really touch them because it touches me. It reminds me of why I'm doing stuff like this. It reminds me of why I'm involved in the organizations that my kids are a part of from a sports point of view, is doing, this is one thing that I want to say you've chosen to enter into schools, which I think is exceptional. It's a place that people need to be, but it doesn't mean if someone's listening in that they have to go find their local school. There's some type of youth organization I was heavily involved in 4H growing up. It made a big difference in my life because that's something, I was a part of.
I didn't play as many sports because I wasn't part of clubs, but yet now I'm a part of my son's soccer club. I try to be involved in what my daughter and other son are doing in their organizations. And I think what you just told me there is, there's plenty of places for adults who have a desire to get better being leaders, which everyone that listens to your content that's listening to this, I hope is the case. That's why they're here. There's plenty of places to be that example of a growing leader, of a leader, trying to get healthy. Because as we talked about earlier and you talked about your experiences, it was an evolution to where you're at now and you and I both are going to continue to grow and get better. There's something we're aspiring to be better. People listening, there's a place for you to get involved. Just go choose to do it. This is what I gather from what you said, and this is what I believe too.
[ROY]
Yes, I mean, you could have said it better. I appreciate the paraphrase. I think people don't realize that you were a kid once and most people that are horrible leaders and most people that can't "follow leaders," they were the same way in school. They were the exact same way, like adults or nothing but grown-up kids. So if you don't get the information as kids, you going to turn out to be the same way as an adult. And we forget that if we had acquired the information a little bit sooner, how much better would we have been in high school and middle school and in college decision making that sort of thing? So for us to be at a level right now, and to even listen, to even not think of going and giving back is a problem.
That is a deficiency in leaders, like I am too busy to go do that. We got other people to go in schools. We got guys like Roy Hall who can go into schools. He has a desire to do that. He has a passion for that. I'm not really passionate about going to a school or going to a youth group or going to an organization and just talking to kids. That's just not what I do. I'm not really, really good with kids. Well, how selfish is that? I'm putting pressure on people. Listen, you making all that money, driving all them nice cars and doing all these things and you got awesome title, but you can't find an hour to go back and help some students who have never been even able to touch someone like you.
It's not even about whether you want to do it. It's not even about whether you feel called to do it. It's just a responsibility to do it because you are in a leadership position and if you can lead young people, let me put you in a room with 50 young people in high school and see if you can command the room. They don't care about your degree. They don't care about how much money you make. They don't care about none of that. How are you going to serve us? I'm sacrificing to come down here. I'm going to serve you. I'm give you everything I could possibly give you so that you can make more money than I can.
That's what you want to do. I bet you, when you go back and you're trying to lead your people and your office, you're going to be like, man, these people are just like the high school kids. Because they didn't get the information. So it's our job to raise up the next generation and stop complaining about what they're not doing. I'm done complaining about what kids aren't doing and what these millennials, I'm done complaining about them. It's our fault for not giving them the information. It's our fault. So I'm about giving information out and that's what I'm going to keep doing,
[TYLER]
Dude, I love your passion. Love it.
[ROY]
These people get me fired up. I don't even see anybody in front of me. There's nobody in front of me, my camera, that's it, but I can see them, I can feel their energy. It's trying to come through my home, man. We going to fight, man. We going to fight to make a difference.
[TYLER]
The last thing is we wrap up when this podcast airs, it'll be during the month of April where we're going through, as a part of the book club, the Vision Driven Leader by Michael Hyatt. I want to hear Roy's vision. Roy's vision for you're on a mission, you're driven, you've talked about that. You talked a little bit earlier about kids that are, are leading businesses and growing businesses. What difference that you're doing right now, what difference is that going to make in the community in three to five years, to seven years, to 10 years? What do you see? You're so good at articulating and painting that picture. I just want you to express it.
[ROY]
There's going to be a moment for all the kids that have come through our program, where in the next three to five years, where they have to make a decision that is going to either save their life or sabotage their life completely. I don't know what that decision's going to be. It may be in a relationship. It may be I'm so stressed about my work and my academics because I got a 4.0, but it's so much pressure that I don't feel like I want to be on this earth anymore. It could be a friend offering some new drug that's out that a cousin took and they have an opportunity to do that. It could be to get behind the will of a car at a college party. It could be just a decision to take a job offer after they graduate from college and they have two offers on the table and one of them is going to compromise their integrity and the other one is going to pay them less money, but will allow them to be able to maintain their morals and values.
There's going to be a decision that has to be made and they're going to need to rely on some information that they got from our system. It's going to happen and it's my job to make sure I equip them for that time and for that moment. Now it may be more than one decision. It may be multiple decisions, but it's going to be one major one that comes up not to retaliate when someone takes something or does something to them. When somebody's on social media and they're having some challenges because they're not getting enough likes and enough comments or people in the comments saying some crazy negative things about something that they did or something that they wore for them not to feel like they don't want to stick around or they want to go retaliate, like mental health.
There's going to be a moment where they're going to need the information that we're giving out to them. And wouldn't it be a shame if I had just decided, because I'm a former NFL player I'm done well for myself. I know how to teach leadership. I'm going to just work with these execs and I'm going to just work with these companies and be a consultant and go speak and motivate and put up videos on Instagram and I'm going to just stay in my lane and do what I do. But you have to go beyond what you just want to do in order to be a complete leader, where is there a deficiency and how can I go in and help defend against those negative influences and those negative things coming against these kids and coming against people that are eventually going to grow up to lead our company, our country rather, and to lead a company?
So that's, the vision is to fight against the things that I can't see. The vision is to keep sacrificing and producing within children producing the hearts, producing good hearts, because I don't know what they're going to face in five years. We don't know what we're going to face in five years, but I do know that people are quitting at a real high level right now. I'm quitting my job. I don't want to work here anymore. It's too much stress. I don't have to deal with it. I can't, I can't, I can't, I won't. So you need to build up people that can face those decisions and stay mentally tough and be great leaders in their decisions. Sometimes just being a great leader is making the right decisions. So that's the vision.
That's the vision to keep doing what I'm doing because my relationships are sound across. I am not just like, people will label me, hey, you're a motivational speaker. No, I'm not just a motivational speaker. I'm not. Forget the motivation. Forget the inspiration. I'm just going to give you truth. I'm going to tell you exactly what's on my heart at the time, based on what the problem is and then that's what we're going to go off of. If you want to call it motivation, you can call it motivation. You want to call it consultant, call it consultant. But what I do know is I can't sleep at night, knowing that we got people in our various communities, higher end communities, all the way down to the inner city, people living in poverty. They just need support. They just want somebody to come in and show me how to be a good leader. Who's willing to do that?
I don't know how to teach. Just go in and be in there. You teach every day. So that's the vision. Just keep building young people, build people my age, I'm 38. Build people older than me. Just connect and assist. Can I focus on assisting? That's the piece of the puzzle, man. That's why on May 17th we'll have our Roy Hall Jr. leadership conference that'll benefit the Driven Foundation. Head coach of the Ohio state university football team Ryan Day will be the keynote speaker and we're excited about that. In that room, it's not going to be a lot of kids, probably none but I bet you those people in that room have kids and they'll be able to go and contribute to them based on what they learn. Matter of fact, I'll say it at the conference, go share this with your kids because they're next up from a leadership standpoint.
[TYLER]
May 17th, in Columbus? Yep.
[ROY]
In Columbus, Ohio. I know your next question. Where can they go find out? royhalljrleadership.com
[TYLER]
There we go. We'll make sure that's in the show notes. Dude, thank you so much for sharing your passion, your vision, your heart. It's always something that I appreciate. And I thank you for really speaking to something from a leadership perspective that every leader needs to take ownership for that too often we think, hey, let somebody else deal with that. So I appreciate that.
One of the things that I, when I got done recording this episode, this is a couple days later that I'm doing the this segment, but I look back fondly from the time that I got to spend with Roy and it's just natural and it's easy. Hopefully you sense that in our conversation, but that's what endears me about Roy is whether you're in a room with him, whether you're watching on YouTube as you possibly hopefully are to see everything that he's got going on from his persona, but as well, just the appreciation for people that love like he does and loves the people that he serves like he does. And the point to that is my sides were pained because of laughing and smiling and just being enjoying of the moment.
It's examples like Roy shared, his experience with Peyton Manning. And let me just give you this, Roy was an exceptional college athlete. He goes into professional football, and yet he had a lot of growing up to do as he shared. I can echo that because not was I exceptional college athlete, but I had some success in college doing certain things that I did and I moved into professional world and I didn't know what I didn't know. I probably did similar things like Roy did, and yet I didn't see the ramifications of it till later. As he shared and he learned it and still is learning as we're all learning. I think the great opportunity for leaders is to understand we don't have it all figured out and we can't all figure it out and even as we broke down a little bit, the opportunity at Peyton, Peyton was still a young quarterback at that time. It is such a different leader in today's world.
But I think it's not to sit back and be an armchair quarterback, an arm chair, quarterback, let me say that again, but it's the opportunity to look back and go through those stories with someone that can help you sharpen and say, okay, this is what I've grown. This is what I know. This is how I can get better. To me, that's what this community is about. The Impact Driven Leader community is about being in situations where you're not sitting there with a coach. You're not sitting there with a facilitator, guiding you and saying, these are the answers. It's sitting and talking with a friend like I did with Roy, have looked through his situation and say, man, let's assess that. Let's look at that leadership opportunity and say, how could both people be better?
Not to shame Payton. Not at all. That's not it. But I also know this, if my desire is to be a better leader, I need to look at those examples and say, how can I grow from that? What can I do to get better? And that's done in a situation where you're in community and people are bringing up those ideas. That's what we have as part of the Impact Driven Leader round table and I'm excited to be opening up for another group to join starting in June. I can't wait for that opportunity. There's such a tremendous group right now, and I want to be able to serve more. So if you're interested, make sure you click on the link down below to join the round table, to get on that waiting list, to join us in June as part of that cohort group.
It's going to be limited. It's going to be limited to eight people or less probably. I like to be five to eight people. That's what I find is best to get the most out of it. I hope you're one of those five to eight people and I'd love for you to be able to sit around the table and grow and learn and learn from perspectives. We read through books together as part of, the book club here with the Impact Driven Leader because my desire is to help other leaders get healthy too. I'm thankful for relationships with guys like Roy, that help me do that, make me constantly strive to be better so I can serve people in a better way to assist them. I also hope you have desire to do that too. And that's why you're listening in.
So I thank you for being here if you've never done it and you're watching on YouTube, great, thanks for subscribing the channel. If you're listening, wherever you're listening to podcasts, I'd love for you to subscribe there as well so you get alerted whenever a new episode comes out every Friday. But I lastly say this I'd love for you to give me a rating, a review. Let me know how I'm doing. Let me know what more you would love to know from a leadership perspective as I'm navigating and trying to learn and master the art of leadership myself because it's never becoming an expert. In my opinion, it's just learning to master, master the skills. And as you continue to master, there's another level to get better and better. And I hope you're on that journey with me. And I invite you to be a part of the round table and joining that journey with me. Thanks for listening in until next time. Have a good one.
